1. Technical Field
The invention relates to asset inventory management publishing and related asset transactions. More particularly, the invention relates to a distributed content architecture supporting commercial transactions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At this point there is not much to be added to the Internet discussion. It is a well known and accepted medium that is used everyday by millions of people for transactions of all sorts. What can be said is that new uses are being found for the Internet all the time. One example of such use is the popular website eBay which provides an efficient market for the exchange of items between buyers and sellers using an auction metaphor. EBay demonstrates that the Internet is a very good mechanism for brokering transactions between many sellers and many buyers, where both the sellers and buyers are individuals or small organizations having limited infrastructure. Such medium could also provide an efficient market for the sale and licensing of content, e.g. art, music, information, and video, for example for artists, photographers, scholars, or musicians.
Much work has already been performed in this regard. See, for example the following:
A. Mourad, Method and apparatus for buffered video playback of video content distributed on a plurality of disks, U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,381 (Dec. 31, 1996) discloses playback of video content distributed on disks in successive data blocks for a plurality of viewers. The disclosed technique involves accessing data for each viewer from a different one of the blocks on the disks within a time cycle, placing the accessed data from each block in respective buffers, reading out the data in the buffers sequentially in common cycles, and reading out the cycles. Preferably, the content is in successive blocks over the discs on a round robin basis, and accessing includes accessing different blocks on the same disk within the time cycle. This patent covers video served from multiple drives into a buffering hierarchy.
Y, Zhao, Two-level content distribution system, U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,840 (Apr. 25, 2000) discloses a system for efficiently distributing computer data files to remotely located end users over a communications network, such as the Internet. A source server is maintained with all of the data files for use by the end users. Several local servers are connected to the source server and contain subsets of the data contained in the source server. Users connect to a local server and request a data file. If the file is located at the local server, it is provided by the local server without the need to contact the source server. If the file is not located at the local server, the source server is contacted by the local server to get the file for the user. The local server monitors data file usage and can update the data it maintains locally based upon the determined usage. Various management functions are used at the source and local servers to coordinate the file transfers and inventory table updating. Different communications protocols are used for the data transfers to enhance the security of the system from user access to data only available to servers.
B. Krishna, J. Melbin, D. Latham, Automatic page converter for dynamic content distributed publishing system, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,522 (Apr. 25, 2000) disclose a Page Builder software program that operates in connection with a dynamic content publishing program, such as FutureTense Designer™. The Page Builder program accepts a dynamic content publication file as input and generates one or more hypertext markup language (HTML) pages for each navigable state of the dynamic content file. As a result, the dynamically specified content is encapsulated in a set of Web pages that may be displayed by a browser which does not have a viewer program applet or plug-in. This provides a capability for producing dynamic content publications, such as Web pages, while eliminating the need to download specialized Viewer applets or otherwise to make use of modified or programming-enabled browser programs.
Y, Zhao, Multi-level category dynamic bundling for content distribution, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,864 (Jul. 6, 1999) discloses a system and method for retrieving the contents of a digital information system by multi-level categorization. The system uses a file table, a category table, and a category bundling table. Headings and directions are displayed on navigation pages to guide the user to the desired file. The description and hierarchy relationship of categories, sub-categories, and files are stored in the tables. When the user selects a category or file and the direction of navigation, the system returns the file, or consults the tables and returns a list of new categories and files for a new navigation page. Moving down and then up through a category usually produces a different navigation page. Dynamic updating of the system categories and files can be accomplished by altering the content of the tables.
J. Tsevdos, R. Cook, N. Ring, R. Barnhill. G. Hamblin, K. Milsted, C. Kindell, S. Waefler, C. Portela, B. Anderson, Digital information accessing, delivery and production system, U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,719 (Mar. 31, 1998) disclose a digital data on-demand turnkey system at a customer premise wherein N number of servers provide for 100% of content distribution of remotely stored digitized information, which information may be previewed in real-time, and product incorporating selected digitized information can be manufactured on-site and within a short response time to a customer's request at a point of sale location. In a retail environment customers, at a point-of-sale location, are able to exhaustively search and preview the content database using graphics-based touch screens at consumer kiosks. Previews including audio and video segments are made available. Prompting screens allow customers to make purchasing decisions by stipulating content which is available from any number of categories of subject matter including music. The selected media for the manufacture and production of the digital data may be from a myriad of different selections and can include CD's, cassette tapes, CD ROM technology, reel-to-reel tapes, and video disks, as an example. A master server is situated geographically so as to be accessible to chain and network subservers. Its geographic and networked location is dependent upon communication network systems and subsystem costs and availability in order to best serve a customer's premise, whether it is a retail store or similar point-of-sale or other end-user location. Security mechanisms that require centralized database authorizations prior to the transmission of content and/or the manufacture of any of the products is provided in addition.
None of the prior art addresses the issue of a virtual marketplace for content where many content providers seek to market their content across a ubiquitous distribution channel, such as the Internet, without the need to surrender control of such content to a central repository. It would be advantageous to provide a distributed content architecture that de-couples site management and presentation from asset inventory management and publishing to facilitate such virtual marketplace for content.